The problems of economically dispensing newspapers and magazines have become increasingly serious as the cost of these articles have risen. There was a day when the cost was low enough that people would not bother to pilfer them, or if they did the economic loss was tolerable. However that is no longer the situation, and the use of more reliable vending means has become necessary. There are known devices where insertion of the proper number of coins gives access to the stack of articles. The customer is relied on to take only one. This is proving to be a less reliable assumption as the cost of the articles has increased. Accordingly, there is now a serious need for an economical and reliable device which will without supervision dispense only one article at a time, and which will not give the customer access to the stack.
There have been vending devices for the purpose of feeding or vending articles one at a time, and one such device is shown in Dutro U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,754, issued Jan. 27, 1976, entitled "Device for Issuing Single Units of Flat Flexible Articles." Also, there is in the vending art a class of device known as a "feeder" wherein an end member is peeled from the stack. Such a feeder is shown in Dutro U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,366, issued May 21, 1968, entitled "Outfeed Mechanism." Both of the foregoing devices, while effective, still have limitations by way of complicated structure, excessive length of travel path for the article being dispensed, and uncertainty of delivery.
In an effort to overcome the above disadvantages, a vendor has been developed such as shown in the aforesaid Dutro U.S. patent application Ser. No. 864,773. This is an effective and reliable device but suffers from limited stack capacity, and too limited article size and bulk. A newspaper vendor for sidewalk use must be rugged enough to withstand abuse, must be loadable quickly and conveniently, must be economically affordable, and must have a minimal height and width. The reason for this latter requirement is that newspaper racks are generally placed as modular widths in an installation and often face legal height limitations. In general their widths are determined by the largest width of the newspapers being sold in that vicinity plus only a minor additional width to accommodate a surrounding enclosure such as a simple hinged cover and appurtenant mechanisms. A device according to this invention utilizes a substantial mechanism which projects from both sides of the stack of newspapers. Accordingly it is desirable to provide mechanisms which themselves occupy as little frontal width and height as possible.
It is an object of this invention to provide a vendor which accomplishes the foregoing objectives.